Match Report

The Warriors managed to achieve their first objective by ending the first quarter of the season unbeaten and they also maintained their 5 point gap at the top of the league. Despite these positive aspects there was a downbeat reaction to this draw against Forfar primarily due to the latest of the goal and how it came about. Rookie referee Neil Watters would be the only person who knows why there was at least four minutes stoppage time in the second half as only 1 ½ minutes would have been taken up with substitutions at maximum. To add to the unhappy feeling would have been that the award of a free kick was debatable to start with. Sean Kilgannon took full advantage of the award of the set piece though and the quality of his strike that curled past Kieron Renton and into the net fully merited a goal.

The Warriors welcomed Jordan Smith and Scott Dalziel back nito the side but they suffered a blow when Steven Hampshire was injured in the opening stages after making a forwards tackle and he limped off after only 6 minutes. By that time the Warriors should have been behind after Jonathon Russell had been gifted possession but blasted over from close range. Forfar continued to create the better chances but it was the home side that almost took the lead in 31 minutes when Andy Brand headed a Kevin Motion free kick off the bar.

The second half saw Stenhousemuir take the lead in the 60th minute when Scott Dalziel headed home an Andy Brand cross and this was just reward for better second half play that had saw Iain Thomson thwarted by a fine save by ex-Warrior Ally Brown and Dalziel denied a stonewall penalty after a run ended with a pull back in the box. It has to be said that all the big decisions made seemed to be wrong and Forfar would quite reightly point out that they were denied a penalty themselves before the Warriors scored when Derek Lilley was brought down by Renton. When the play went dead after that incident there was the unusual sight of players from both teams remonstrating with the referee at the same time as Jordan Smith felt that he had been fouled before the ball got into the danger area.

Forfar almost equalised in the 62nd minute when David Dunn made contact from close range following a goalmouth scramble but Renton managed somehow to clear the ball. The Loons tried hard to get back on level terms and keep up their unbeaten away sequence and they eventually restored parity in the 94th minute with Kilgannon’s strike.